The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Delosperma plant, botanically known as Delosperma cooperi ‘Saucy Strawberry’ and will be referred to hereinafter by its cultivar name, ‘Saucy Strawberry’. The new cultivar of Delosperma is a hardy herbaceous perennial grown for use as a landscape and container plant and is particularly suitable as a groundcover.
‘Saucy Strawberry’ arose from an ongoing breeding program by the Inventor in Hudsonville, Mich. The objective was to obtain a new series of Delosperma cultivars with more floriferous blooming habits, smaller and more compact and uniform plant habits, and blooming periods that are the same amongst all cultivars in the series when grown under the same conditions.
The Inventor made a controlled cross in July of 2014 in his test garden in Hudsonville, Mich. between an unnamed proprietary plant from the Inventor's breeding program, reference no. 275-3, as the female parent and pollen that was pooled from unnamed proprietary plants of Delosperma as the male parent. The exact male parent is therefore unknown. The Inventor selected ‘Saucy Strawberry’ as a single unique plant in June of 2016 from the resulting seedlings.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar was first accomplished by stem tip cuttings in April of 2015 in Hudsonville, Mich. Asexual propagation by stem tip cuttings has determined that the characteristics are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.